I have had the same experience, Jim. I sent numerous emails to the people who book the "buskers" at downtown Disney, and never got any response. I am starting to think you have to know someone, or otherwise have an "in".

Do you remember that enchanted tiki room event a few years ago? They had a grateful dead style hippy band playing that event, because one of the people in the band is an imagineer. Talk about a no-bid contract! They had it locked up, and not by any stretch of imagination was it a "tiki" band!

On 2011-04-26 07:44, christiki295 wrote:Vegas-sized hotel towers, around a nice looking A-Frame central hall.
The ocean-front property will have pools, and lots of meandering paths.
Fun, if not necessarily isolated.

That model above is for the amazing soon to be open Aulani Resort in Oahu, not the Disneyland Hotel.

On 2011-04-26 11:31, King Bushwich the 33rd wrote:Every Monday, Miceage.com has updates on construction at the Disney Hotel. You need to scroll past a zillion photos of updates on the Little Mermaid and Carland rides though. It's down there somewhere

Well, some good news is that Kevin & Jody are contributing some designs to Trader Sam's now. They were at the Bahooka event with the art director, and he bought the Bahooka and BOT mugs for the mug display case.

And yes the micage weekly construction updates are a great place to keep informed on the project.

Rumor also has it from another Disney source that some of the items and decorative elements of the old Adventurers Club that used to be in Pleasure Island may make there way into this Restaurant bar as well...

OK...so I have a friend on the "inside" that gave me some information that may clear some things up. This person is also a TC lurker (but not a member), so I'm sure they will see this..they were also at the last Tiki Oasis, have tickets for the next one, and are regulars at Don the Beachcomber, so they have a pretty good idea of what "real" Tiki is.

1. The Jimmy Buffett rumor is dead wrong. They plan to keep things as authentic as possible, right down to the music.

2. Unbelievably, the restaurant will be on a tight budget when it first opens, which unfortunately means no Tikiyaki or Hula Girls...for a while. But that could change when (and if) the restaurant starts to run in the black. It seems pretty unbelievable when you think that this is Disney we are talking about, but for those of us who have had business dealing with the Mouse...this is Disney we're talking about. Jim...my inside source says they would LOVE to have you, but they can't afford you...yet.

3. They are planning on serving authentic Tiki drink recipes at the bar (Trad'r Sams).

Hopefully this alleviates some fears that some of you may have...I for one can't wait to see it. Cheers!

On 2011-04-26 17:05, Jason Wickedly wrote:OK...so I have a friend on the "inside" that gave me some information that may clear some things up. This person is also a TC lurker (but not a member), so I'm sure they will see this..they were also at the last Tiki Oasis, have tickets for the next one, and are regulars at Don the Beachcomber, so they have a pretty good idea of what "real" Tiki is.

1. The Jimmy Buffett rumor is dead wrong. They plan to keep things as authentic as possible, right down to the music.

2. Unbelievably, the restaurant will be on a tight budget when it first opens, which unfortunately means no Tikiyaki or Hula Girls...for a while. But that could change when (and if) the restaurant starts to run in the black. It seems pretty unbelievable when you think that this is Disney we are talking about, but for those of us who have had business dealing with the Mouse...this is Disney we're talking about. Jim...my inside source says they would LOVE to have you, but they can't afford you...yet.

3. They are planning on serving authentic Tiki drink recipes at the bar (Trad'r Sams).

Hopefully this alleviates some fears that some of you may have...I for one can't wait to see it. Cheers!

Thanx for the info jason. This makes me happy to hear,and, well, what can I say? ....pass the salt, I need to put it on my shoes so they taste better (foot firmly in mouth)

That being said, the plans look amazing, and I'm glad that the people in charge are tiki nerds too. For now, if they need it, I will send them the CD's so they can play them over the sound system, and hopefully, at some point, we'll all be enjoying some live Tikiyaki action in there.
I'll be there for the grand opening for sure.